That’s not a very good comparison, in my opinion
Does anybody here think OP’s dad went mudding offroad . . . ?
Im not saying he did. What i said was hydrolock can cause that issue. A car can hydrolock in about 5 inches of water. It really dont take much, and if the intake is low it could suck up water in a heavy rainstorm from water getting spit up from the road.
It sounds like the chrysler dealership personnel weren’t terribly smart, because they spoke some words, which were later used against them, so to speak
I’m just a lowly mechanic, but when I was at the dealership, we were expressly told to be VERY careful what we said to ANYBODY, because it could be used against the dealership. We were told to refer anything questionable or vague to the service manager
Sounds like your service manager wasn’t very careful, in choosing what he said.
In any case, I’m glad you got some compensation for your loss
So, your father bought the car used???
Take the money and run, and be thankful.
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I am thankful that finally we were able to have our case heard and that the arbitrator did what he could to render justice. I am not thankful that our car broke and we were out of a vehicle for 8 months while our warranty was restricted and we were being accused of fraud. I don’t know if you can put yourself in my father’s shoes and imagine the stress of not knowing what is going on or what to do or what will happen to your vehicle. Having the car purchased does not make up for that. So I am thankful to the arbitrator and God but not towards chrysler.
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How’s your dad doing?
How did he take the arbitrator’s news?
He’s glad it’s finally resolved. He’s tired. It took a toll on him.
I was using our neighbor’s lawnmower, a Homko with a Briggs & Stratton engine. This was back in 1957. The engine just suddenly died. When I pulled the cord to restart the engine, the engine turned over freely with no resistance. When we tore the engine down, the connecting rod had broken. Nine years later, another neighbor had the same experience with a different mower that had a Briggs & Stratton engine. On teardown, we found the connecting rod had broken. While it is rare, I believe it is possible, from my observation, that a connecting rod may have a defect that may show up quite a while after the engine has been placed in service.
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A lawn mower engine will stall/stop quickly in grass when there is a failure so there may not be much damage from the broken connecting rod.
The weight of a V-6 engine crankshaft and torque converter is many times greater, when a connecting rod breaks at 1800 RPMs the engine will continue to rotate for several hundred revolutions or until there is significant damage to stop the crankshaft rotation. The pictures show no debris in the oil pan and only a single hole punched though the aluminum block. Something stopped this engine very quickly, that broken connecting rod would have cut many holes in the block and left a cup full of metal bits in the oil pan.
This seems like a case of dumb luck, no pictures taken by the owner, no professional inspection performed for supporting evidence.
Separating the owner from the vehicle is the best course of action in this case considering the value of the time of the people involved compared to the value of a used car.
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The insurance company did state their professional opinion. And the dealership took photos if any of them showed anything suggesting neglect or water presence you can be sure they would have shared these photos so I think you can deduce that there wasn’t anything of the sort. I’m not sure why you’re trying to suggest the arbitrator reached this settlement as if this isn’t really the right thing to do but rather the easy thing to do. Did you not read his decision? There was zero evidence of water or neglect. So then what caused the engine fail is by default a manufacturing defect.
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Than get past it and move on. The longer you drag this on is the longer he’ll be under stress. Let him recover.
One thing surprises me. There is documentation above showing the owner admitted to partially disassembling the engine at home in an attempt to diagnose the failure prior to the car being towed to the dealership for warranty assessment. This would normally be cause for immediate dismissal of claims. I’m surprised the manfr didn’t emphasize this aspect more in their defense. The absence of water could be due to this initial disassembly…not saying water caused the failure just that it helps defend the position they decided to take.
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You made an excellent point, TT, but at this point it doesn’t matter. The important thing for the OP now should be to let his dad get past this, and as long as he’s obsessing over it that isn’t likely to happen. The OP should be glad they got what they got and move on.
They did it emphasize that greatly. Except it’s not true. I have no knowledge of disassembling an engine I made no such attempt.
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If youve been reading the thread I said a few time already that that is a lie. 100 percent lie. If there was any truth to that statement then they would have won the arbitration - you can be sure of that. There is zero truth to that statement. So consider that and then maybe you’ll begin understanding why I feel the way I feel. Now if this ever happens to you you are welcome to turn the other cheek and feel grateful. I don’t feel that way. I will sue at every level possible. I will bring this to the attorney General the BBB the ftc. I will post this to Facebook, yelp and Google reviews. And I will ask the Michigan licensing committee to investigate their licenses. I guess we just do things differently but then again you don’t really know how you’d feel if this didn’t happen to you or your father. Frankly I’m a little surprised you’re not seeing the impropriety of this dealership and chrysler.
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@Syb388 like I said earlier, I’m glad that you and your father achieved the outcome you sought even though it took a really long time and exacted quite a toll on your father. You’re entitled to your feelings, and if you want to pursue whatever avenues available to you (Yelp, etc.) you’re more than welcome to do so. Thank you for not naming names here. It looks like the other users have a different take on the situation; that’s fine. As you pointed out, they’re free to turn the other cheek in their own lives. Before this discussion turns into a total stalemate or devolves into something more angry, I think everyone will have to agree to disagree.
However, names were named-at least two dealers were named. I think @TwinTurbo made a good point and as he did I was starting to reconsider this whole discussion. Something is not smelling right.
There is just too much “he doth protest too much”. Continuing on and on ad-minutiae while glossing over the big stuff. It is quite easy to establish that the car was towed home instead of to a dealer. Why? We all know that we do not fool around with a car still under warranty. It goes to the dealer. There was a new air filter. Why? When was it replaced because they already said that the last oil change had been 2000 miles ago, even though the dealer said 10K was ok. So what was the oil change schedule and when and why did the filter get changed? And there are just lots more things that are just strange or unexplained when it would be so easy to just give the full story. Like why the picture of a clean oil pan with only part of the rod that broke and no other pieces to help determine the cause? Who would do that.
I’m going out on a limb but seems to me it is quite plausible to suspect that the car was driven through a puddle and water ingested. Towed home, discovered, cylinders dried, filter changed, then towed to the dealer who has seen everything before, and let the dance begin.
The discussion should have stopped 100 comments ago and the longer it goes the more I smell something.
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The longer it goes on, the more I worry about the OP’s dad.
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Maybe I don’t write clearly or maybe you don’t read clearly. The last 10k oil change was 2k miles ago. Not done 2k into a 10k oil change. The pics provided were all that was provided by the dealer. Except most recently at the arbitration there is the sheet of small black and white photos. The air filter was not new. I said that already. I think you can see that also in the black and white photos. The car stalled out gave no key detected on dash message so we took it home to try new key reset the battery etc. Not sure what’s not clear maybe in hindsight it would have been best to take direct to dealer but it seems reasonable at the time to take it home and see if it wasn’t something small. As for protesting too much. Maybe if it didn’t happen to you it may seem that way. There are other small facts which if I talk about them too much you’d probably think I’m protesting too much again. But the fact the dealer was called the next day and they instructed to bring the car in next week. We didn’t want to wait a week that was the dealers decision. I said earlier how I opened the hood and looked at the air filter and pulled on the serpentine belt. That was on instruction from my mechanic. I videotaped that and sent it via Facebook messenger. Its timestamped. He was involved from the on set and those videos show the air filter same day after the tow. That isn’t fake. And he isn’t fake either he’s a real certified chrysler mechanic. He also provided testimony at the arbitration. These are just the facts. I was also told the pcm could provide facts as well which would indicate one way or another but the dealership never provided any information off the pcm. These are just the facts I won’t try to convince you anymore. But see how you’re taking chryslers statements as fact re the air filter and disassembling the engine. Now consider that these facts are actually lies. That’s an outrage. Now you’ll understand why I feel the way I feel and why I felt compelled to share. Good day
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I think we could have 1000 responses as to why the connecting rod failed. Even if I saw the engine disassembled, I would have no idea as I am not a mechanic. When I was on high school, my dad did a lot of business with the local DeSoto/Plymouth dealer. It was a smaller dealership and the chief mechanic was also the service manager. Sometimes, when I would go to pick up our family’s car, this mechanic would tell me about another car they had on the shop that had given them fits. One evening when I picked up our car, he showed me.a 1958 Plymouth wagon and the engine had been pulled out. The engine was inverted on the ground and the crankshaft had broken around one of the throws. The old mechanic wanted me to guess what had caused the problem. I had no idea and when I asked him, he said he really didn’t know either but his best guess was a manufacturing defect that didn’t show up until the.car had been in service for a while. Some years later, I saw exactly the same problem on a 1956 Plymouth. The.crankshaft had broken around the same throw. I knew the.owners of this car and I don’t think they had been hot-rodding the car.
I bought a used 1990 Ford.Aerostar with the.4.0 six.cylinder engine. I bought the car from a.used car.dealer in 1991 and.it had the balance of the factory warranty. The engine developed a problem. The Ford dealer determined that it had a cracked cylinder head and enough coolant had leaked into one of the cylinder’s wall was scored. The entire engine was replaced under warranty. I have no idea how the car was treated by the original owner. Perhaps the vehicle had overheated. I do know that the dealer, even though I hadn’t bought the Aerostar through his agency, honored the warranty with no questions asked. The used car.dealer loaned me a.car while the engine was being replaced in the Aerostar.